* The company wants to turn its former shoe manufacturing facility into an office building, banking on the development of the Timpuri Noi area, once the real estate project of the Ikea group completes
The "Flaros" plant of Bucharest (symbol:FLAO) switched from manufacturing to real estate ever since 2009, and this year, it plans to invest into turning its former manufacturing buildings into office and warehouse spaces.
In order to lease out those spaces, the company will target small and medium companies, betting on the development of the area, after the completion of Ikea's project, which is under way nearby (the former Timpuri Noi platform), according to the statements of the general manager of "Flaros", Liviu Ungureanu.
77% of "Flaros" Bucureşti is owned by SIF5 Oltenia. The company is located near the Timpuri Noi and Unirii Square areas. In other words, very close to the Timpuri Noi platform, which was acquired in 2010, by the real estate investment division of the IKEA group, Vastint Holding B.V., which has made it its plan to develop buildings with several destinations: residential, offices and retail.
In total, "Flaros" owns a leasable area of 25,413 square meters, but the occupancy rate is only 63%, because the spaces have not been modernized.
However, Liviu Ungureanu said that in 2012, Flaros spent 780,000 lei on increasing the comfort of its customers, and in 2013 the general manager wants to take further steps towards that goal.
He is betting on the support of the company's majority shareholder SIF5 Oltenia, which he says is rethinking the activities of the companies it has majority stakes in, reorienting them towards business. "Essentially, through this approach, SIF Oltenia is financing the real economy", Liviu Ungureanu said.
Thus, immediately after the investment plan for 2013 gets approved by shareholders, Fla
